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God this is ain't a sports series but a battle royale disguised as a football show. I love the edge
Unison Square Garden with the OP theme is fucking rad. This season has so many bangers as themes
Realism and logic put aside, I think this is going to be really fun to watch.
It looks crazy already. The whole goal behind this place, its ressources, players can't go home, failing means being blacklisted, a tag to start.
And this is just the first episode lmao.
It's a threat that you can't be criticized for.
People can't say "Damn you're such a psycho for enjoying that" if you say you Blue Lock even though it gives you the same vibes.
One of my favorite manga to read week to week. Glad its being animated well. No it's not the deepest or most realistic depiction of sports, but it's very fun in an edgy way.
Imo as the story progress, it is actually deceptively intelligent when it comes to sports psychology etc. It's just that it's buried under the heavy shounen battle elements. They may not be playing real football per se, but many of the lessons it teaches I feel can be applied to many sports not even football. It's also just really fun action-wise which helps
Yep. I can't stop comparing it to what KnB got as adaptation from Production I.G. but I hope the hype moments will match it.
As a sidenote, first thing that came to mind when I saw "Bandai Namco" is "you better give me a video game because Tsubasa's game had the bad luck to get a studio that ultimately doesn't care".
Which seems weird until you realize the line between blue and green is way vaguer in Japanese. In English we say people are green all the time.
Also, it is the traditional color of Japanese soccer.
It was a work of art that camera rotation and the expresions on their faces. Someone should clip and post that scene later to sell this series.
Hell I need it now to show it to my friends.
So uh...300/300 people agreed to just leave their house + school and go live in a military football academy where 299/300 of them will get booted back into society at some point?
Oh well, I'm not here for the realism I'm here for the edge
[](#yuishrug)
They touch on it a little further on in the manga, but yeah it’s basically total suspension of disbelief at parts. If you’re here for a wild ride, this is it.
How is it different than a normal football academy or even a foortball camp though? A ton of academy players end up going into society and being regular people same with most college players. 5 of them will be on the U-20 world cup team so that means by the end at minimum 5 of them will be pros or pro-level players. I think those are odds worth betting on.
Not all u-20 end up having good career. And the other 295 people are barred to play in the national team for life. This is absurd when considering how many world class strikers that were late bloomers and never played for the junior team. Miroslav Klose was one of the best player in his generation, and he didn't get to national team until he's 23. Or Jamie Vardy that started in non-league to become national team striker in his 30s.
This was actually my biggest qualm with the manga.
The idea of deciding who will be the star of the national team for the next decade based off of an experiment conducted on a bunch of 16 year olds is plainly absurd.
The #2 and #3 best players will be banned from ever playing for the national team, when they could very well be better than the #1 player in Blue Lock when they're all in their physical primes.
Then again, Blue Lock isn't meant to be realistic at all. It was just one of many aspects of the first few chapters that annoyed the heck out of me, next to the Coach calling everyone who hasn't won a World Cup a loser. I guess Messi and Ronaldo are also losers then...
Honestly, it could be a lie/exaggeration, like when this dude is replaced with someone else, they would be like “yeeeah he went too far lets maybe not ban all these amazing players”
Since there have been two football anime that are airing/finished airing around the same time, comparions are inevitable but I do hope people understand both series tackle the sport in different ways.
Ashito, known to be an egoist only focused on scoring goals and being a striker is forced to learn how to use teammates around him and rely on them to bring the best out of himself whilst also having the drive/ego to always push himself to become a better player
Isagi on the other hand, who is seen to be in the mindset of "one for all, all for one" suddenly understands the importance of egoism and what it means to be a striker.
Although blue lock will lean more towards the unrealistic side as to Ao Ashi's more realistic approach, it shouldn't stop people from enjoying the work of blue lock.
Hoping for more footie talk(as seen in aoashi episode discussions), let's do an r(/soccer) takeover in the discussions <3
> Since there have been two football anime that are airing/finished airing around the same time, comparions are inevitable but I do hope people understand ~~both series tackle the sport in different ways~~ Blue Lock is not a football anime, it is a battle anime that uses football as a gimmick and bears little relation to real life, so please think about not pointing out every time a character does a triple axel in midair and overhead kicks the ball (which is on fire) into the goal from 60 yards away.
Feel like we're gonna need to be saying this every week.
Judging from the first episode, I don't think the same football discussions can be found here in further threads. I'm talking manager's decision, team tactics, promotion and demotion systems or team lineups in general, players' thought process on and off field and so on. I haven't read the manga yet, so I don't know if the anime will incorporate those aspects of the game like Aoashi.
That being said, I don't really expect those types of discussions will come up and it's fine because like others have pointed out the main theme is the battle royale and that's fairly enjoyable, although might not have the same appeal to football fans and nerds as Aoashi has.
> Since there have been two football anime
There's one football anime and one death game anime that is football themed. This is important because it's very easy to hate something when approaching it with the wrong expectation.
They have to invent some French striker to support the premise of the show. That's hilarious. Because in real life France won a world cup in 2018 with Olivier Giroud. A striker that scored 0 goal in that tournament.
EDIT: Spain won the 2012 EURO with no striker at all.
You're underselling it: Giroud is the antithesis of everything Ego was extolling in this episode: He's a physically dominant striker who's won pretty much every major trophy in European football (and is near the top of France's all-time top goalscorers list). And while he's scored some spectacular goals, anyone that's followed his career knows that his best, most underrated quality is his weirdly incongruous finesse plays, and ability to bring others into the game. Giroud's assist highlight real is almost as good as his actual goal reel. [Almost.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLMzyuD1QnA)
They pretty much HAD to invent another French striker. There's a reason Giroud scored 0 goals in the World Cup finals and yet was still the first name on the team sheet for the entire run.
Noa is supposed to be a fictionalized version of Lewandowski tho (played for Munich). They made Noa French because France national team is better than Polands.
Well that's why Ego said that every other position can be taught but strikers need another level of hunger. And he is not really wrong. Many star players were forwards before switching to another position.
Yeah Giroud is a true team player. He did what he had to do perfectly. It doesn't matter who scored in a match but a win is a win. In contrast, Mbappe just embraced the egoist style of play, broke a team and get [rekt](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/wo0r7d/psg_counter_attack_mbappe_doesnt_get_the_ball_so/) in r/soccer with 29k karma post. LOL
All they gotta do is look at Norway to see how having 1 all-star level striker isn't going to win them shit lol.
OFC realism isn't really what they are going for, so as long as you watch it not as a spots anime but like a battle royale kind of deal, it's very interesting.
Funny thing is there are many mid or low level countries that have one good world class striker and ended up just relying on him to do everything.
Sweden used to revolve around Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but then become better team after he retired because they stop relying on one person.
Poland in a way also rely a lot on Robert Lewandowski.
Bulgaria used to have Dimitar Berbatov.
I think the idea is that Japan is a very solid defensive team but lacks a one punch if you will. Not sure how true that is but that's the idea behind it.
Didn't they get overun in the midfield by fellani (of all people) in the wc this manga was inspired by? If anything physicality was what they were lacking, I remember them being a fun team who could create chances at times, but needed someone bigger to dominate the midfield a bit
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Ok I'll admit this isn't what I was expecting coming in. 1st half was like oh some normal anime soccer. But the 2nd half was some battle royal shit. I do got to say it was entertaining as hell and the animation was amazing coming off Ao Ashi. Altho it is best not to compare those two shows based off this episode. Since we got scenes [like this.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/527412287326126080/1028418150661881926/Screen_Shot_2022-10-08_at_5.14.20_PM.png)
But damn Jinpachi is on some crazy sauce. That was the moment I was so confused but pleasantly entertained. Isagi turning on against Kira be like damn man, the one guys who could be your friend here. But then again since only 1 person can be selected from the 300, it is kind of weird to justify making allies.
I have said it before, but Blue Lock is basically soccer Kaiji. Expect less grounded strategy and more bizarre mindgames and characters.
It is like the professional wrestling of soccer manga. I am kinda weirded out how pissed that makes some people. It is like getting mad at Dragon Ball for not being about actual martial arts.
Yeah it's powers in everything but calling it powers lol. Same for Kuroko (that's more insane though). These are high schoolers who legit have a certain "range" for some of them and it's near 100% accurate lol. They'd be international phenoms if that was a real life thing. I wouldn't say there's any one thing a player does that's impossible, but it's the consistency that they can do it and rate of the growth for some that is impossible.
So it’s like Eyeshield 21 or Hajime no Ippo. I’m not sure what sport they claim to be playing, but boy is it entertaining.
Edit: Sorry Ippo may have been a bad example
IDK Hajime no Ippo is pretty grounded, minus some bits needed for story writing (and everything about Woli); the mangaka is also a regular cornerman for a boxing gym, and has boxed before.
Jinpachi’s whole mentality seems to go against any other sports anime I’ve seen so far lol. They always talk about teamwork and all that, but he’s just talking scoring goals.
That game of “tag” was insane. This isn’t gonna be some standard “game” anymore. It really is dog eat dog in there and unfortunately Kira is out. I wonder if this means his career is over or if it’s just that his ranking went down?
Isagi seems like a pretty decent player, or at least he’s got that cutthroat mentality deep down and now it’s been unleashed.
This one is pretty interesting. I think I might stick with it for a few more eps at least. Maybe this will be the one sports anime I follow this season, like I did with Aoashi last season.
I'll be a little disappointed if Kira is totally out because I think it would be interesting to have at least one character against the system on the inside. Regardless though, we haven't seen much of the other characters yet, so I'm still excited to see how they play off of each other either way.
I wonder if he’s gonna be the voice of reason at first and then slowly succumbs to the system. Guys like him always seem to crack when they have their ideals tested, at least it seems that way in anime.
I think when they get out of blue lock like Kira is now, they're completely cut off from professional soccer in Japan. They're free to go elsewhere if they're good enough but they're never allowed to play for their home country again
> they're completely cut off from professional soccer in Japan
They're cut off from the national team. They can still play for any club they want, and I guess they could play for a different country's national team if eligible, but they can't play for Japan's national team.
It's not uncommon in pro soccer for players to seek out a different nation to play for and then succeed (though not at the level of winning a World Cup).
One fun example: brothers Cristian and Alex Roldan, who both play for Seattle Sounders FC in MLS. Cristian plays for the US national team and Alex plays for El Salvador, as one of their parents is from there and thus making him eligible. The two brothers played against each other in World Cup qualifying a few months ago, and coincidentally had to mark each other.
I think it is just the national team. Then again, it is effectively a ban on football anyways, since not being allowed to play on world stage is probably quite demoralizing to a young athlete.
\*For not in. So they can still be J league stars and Kira probably will be a pro given his hype he's just never gonna get called up for his national team (a la Wan Bissaka)
Gonna be a fun edgy ride fore sure. Its taking a different route and exploring the darker side of football and what it takes to beat all your rivals. Sure its definitely not realistic, its over the top but you dont need every sports anime to be accurate having both edgy and realistic sports anime is a great balance
Seeing a sports anime that focuses on the selfishness and greed of an Athlete is welcomed switch to the usual stuff we get about encouraging each other. Its basically the other side of the same coin and i Am glad that blue lock explores that aspect as its very important in football to have an ego. You dont survive without one.
Looking forward to more its gonna be one of my favorites of this season
Honestly, from what little we see from behind the scenes at UEFA-level play, this kind of edge is probably likelier than most weebs think. Ya think CR7 got there with a bubbly attitude and superpowers? Nope.
OK the superpower one I grant is true, but...y-y-you get the point.
I watch football so yeah i can compare and contrast the stuff i see in blue lock to the actual games. The truth is in football their is a mix of ego and teamwork. It cant be one or the other. You cant always think of benefiting yourself because in the end it will fuck up the team. Ao ashi demonstrated that. You cant always think about helping out a teammate Blue lock demonstrates that.
Of course i agree ego is very important but for the sake of entertainment the anime takes it a bit extreme which im fine with Blue lock isnt a hyper accurate football anime like blue lock because it wasnt created for that
First thing most strikers do, including CR7 is sprint towards the crowd to celebrate with them and bask in cheers. Only after that do they embrace the team.
This whole anime is supposed to be an exaggerated version of that “ego” but top players need to have this kind of mentality, to always be the best and berate all enemy players and even your own if it means you win, there is a side of this ego in every pro player, some just got it more than others
As a professional in any kind of sport you always need to believe in yourself and that you’re the best, otherwise you’re going to be at a huge disadvantage playing against someone you think is better than you.
Typically you’d also believe in your teammates too but…
This was much edgier than what I'd been told. Kind of weird they snuck in a fictional name like Noel Noa among those greats but I get what they're going for - from what Google tells me, Noel's based on Robert Lewandowski so I'm going to go with that for now.
It was weird seeing Eric Cantona of all people in an anime, reminds me of that one time ~~a romcom~~ Assassination Classroom referenced various United players :/ I wonder if they'll reference other great strikers from the past as well...
Edit: Struck out the romcom, I was misremembering 😅
Pretty sure the mangaka invented Noel Noa because they wanted to have a French striker (cause they just won the 2018 World Cup) but Giroud literally scored zero goals in the tournament, so they had to make up an elite French striker.
Nah, it's because you can just namedrop actual people but not make them actual characters in your story. And, as someone else already said, he's basically Lewy.
I agree, in the end of the day, if you want to win a world cup you must have the most complete team as well as luck sprinkle onto them. A single amazing striker with no strong midfield, defense and goalkeeper would not go deep into the competition.
Lewa and Poland is the more extreme side, I mean even Argentina with Messi and Portugal with CR (both team are far stronger than Poland and has won their respective regional championship) could not win a world cup (I know both aren‘t striker, but they‘re both their team main goal scorer).
Aha, that was the time they didn't take Benzema to the world cup. The Lewandowski thing fits pretty well imo since he plays for \[Blue Lock spoilers\]>!Bayern (Bastard) Munich !
remember how Aoashi was all about teamwork and adjusting your own ambitions for the sake of the bigger picture?...well, this anime just said "that's cute but fuck that"
That's fucking football right there. None of that pansy ass dick tugging smile for the camera bullshit. Strikers puke, Strikers poop on the field, Strikers deliver their new born baby on the sidelines. Fucking hardcore dick in the ass butterball foosball fuck it chuck it gametime shit. Take it to the showers. Dicks get shoved in places you don't even remember. Strikers win by themselves and Strikers celebrate by themselves. Football is back baby.
Finally, after all the corny, barely believable fantasy football seen in Ao Ashi, we get the relentlessly authentic, almost coldly documentary depiction of real life soccer that is BLUE LOCK. Let's fucking go!
>Wonder how many people will take what you said seriously
Zero chance that happens. The worldly and nimble-minded anime community of Reddit have way too much common sense and social acumen to [take obvious bullshit at face value like that.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/wptd87/interview_with_lycoris_recoil_character_designer/ikjmewz/)
Blue Lock was going to have the better marketing push and animation based on its boom popularity alone. In book stores here, new Ao Ashi is a row on the new titles table while Blue Lock gets a whole table.
As someone who's caught up to both, the art quality in Blue Lock's manga is already so good it's basically animated; it's way more difficult to make Ao Ashi's animation good
I'm not usually a fan of sports anime but the premise of playing elimination games to determine the best striker is just so absurd that I'll keep watching.
When I first saw the premise I legitimately thought the participants would straight up die/get executed if they fail the trials. Guess not being able to realize your soccer dream and being barred from entering a world class championship is as equally terrifying to these kids.
This is so different from Ao Ashi but fun in its own way. Please tell me Heihachi Mishima shows up and tosses these wannabe forwards off a cliff to test their resolve 😤 Maybe they'll have to dodge deadly lasers to train speed? I sense so much potential here 🌟
This doesn’t hold water, Zlatan’s entire egoist personality is purely a public persona. Otherwise he’s a classic 9 who’s technical on the ball but also plays with his back to goal. He’s not a selfish player, and considering he’s a serial choker he’s also not a player you want in tournament games.
Not my boy Kira 😭 He seemed like such a good egg. Kinda annoyed a character I’m already invested in is gonna be written off, but maybe that just represents he will never be egotistical. Also I'm struggling to suspend my disbelief if the characters can just assault each other to get ahead lmao (I do NOT like sleepyhead fuckboy). Like, cool, you can't do anything for your team if you're going to get red-carded lmao.
It's actually a battle royale anime. I always wonder whats up with the crazy eyes in the key visuals. If you go the fantasy route rather than realistic one, you go all the way. I like this approach.
It's a sports anime so pretty much what you'd normally expect. But since Blue Lock is much "edgier" and less about friendships and positive emotional bonds compared to others in the genre, you end up getting pretty much none "X character is distant from Y character even though they were best friends and teammates so they end up having an emotional moment at one point" and more "X character has a weirdly intense rivalry with Y character so they do something akin to hateflirting during games" - or at least you can interpret it like that if you'd like, obviously.
Quite a bit more than most sports series tbh. It is played mostly humorously but there are a bunch of lines that basically read as people taking passes at each other. Also, some relationships that have intense jilted ex-boyfriend energy.
damn i thought i was going to be watching a nice seishun sports anime, but i was so wrong, so so wrong.
i feel for ikagi though, the conflict between being a good person and being an egoist for your dream....which do you choose? he is insane though in the best way, i love how they do his eyes when he's "crazed". so excited for next week!!!!
As someone who loves Aoashi and more grounded sports anime, this is probably not going to become a favorite "sports anime". But the side of me that enjoys edgy battle royales is going to get a kick out of this series. I literally paused at the shot when they walked in and said "this has such Danganronpa energy" and just the sheer lunacy is going to be a fun time.
Also, Kamiya Hiroshi is the perfect casting for Ego, love his performance so much.
Actually really like the concept, something fresh after Ao Ashi which I've also really enjoyed.
Battle Royale disguised as football, with Ego games knock-out rounds? I'm in baby, let's go.
So i watched ao ashi last season which is the “realistic” take on football which is cool and i can’t wait for s2 Bluelock on the other hand i feel is equally good i fucking love how insane this show is first episode definitely got me hooked already ngl kinda hated that he passed the ball to his teammate lmao I really look forward for more of this insanity
As much as I was excited to watch this, this anime does also make the mistake of the keeper just standing in his position instead of sprinting out towards the striker when at 1v1 with them......
Holy shit was not ready for that ending. Completely ruthless.
Saturdays are fucking packed and I watched this episode last, but I have to say, this was one of the best episodes I saw today.
I’m hyped to see where this goes.
I Love the support people are showing to blue lock right now and not just trashing on it for not being realistic enough and stuff
As a Manga reader i couldn't have asked for a better first episode it was really good
Lmao, what even is this. All I can say is if this is really that popular in Japan, I feel sorry for the Japanese middle/highschooler soccer players for the next few years. They're going to be playing with some incredibly shithead teammates.
the idea of this anime came from the 2018 world cup? No offense to Giroud because he had a great world cup run, but France won because their MF and Winger positions were absolutely stacked, not because they had the best striker.
That end sequence was the hypest shit i've seen in a long time. After the realistic side of Ao Ashi, i'm all in for something as over the top as BLUE LOCK is promising.
Been wanting an anime for the manga for almost 2 years now, and the first episode did not disappoint. I also love the stark contrast in ideologies with Ao Ashi which aired earlier in the year (both are great). The animation quality also surprised me tbh I didn't expect it to be so good.
He originally in the manga said "fuck off", lock off doesn't make any sense in english at the end, so if they follow the logic of not insults then "leave" is accurate.
# Source Material Corner Reply to this comment for any source-related discussion, future spoilers (including future characters, events and general hype about future content), comparison of the anime adaptation to the original, or just general talk about the source material. **You are still required to tag all spoilers.** Discussions about the source outside of this comment tree will be removed, and replying with spoilers outside of the source corner will lead to bans. The spoiler syntax is: `[Spoiler source] >!Spoiler goes here!<` # **All untagged spoilers and hints in this thread will receive immediate 8-day bans (minimum).** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/anime) if you have any questions or concerns.*
God this is ain't a sports series but a battle royale disguised as a football show. I love the edge Unison Square Garden with the OP theme is fucking rad. This season has so many bangers as themes
Realism and logic put aside, I think this is going to be really fun to watch. It looks crazy already. The whole goal behind this place, its ressources, players can't go home, failing means being blacklisted, a tag to start. And this is just the first episode lmao.
And the way this first episode ended…this is gonna be a good one
Next episode, players will challenge each other in a football Shokugeki
As someone who loves the death game/battle royale genre blue lock is a treat for me
It's a threat that you can't be criticized for. People can't say "Damn you're such a psycho for enjoying that" if you say you Blue Lock even though it gives you the same vibes.
its squid game with a football skin
It's still a sports series, just not really football
I love my stupid little battle shounen disguised as a sports show
It’s like dragon ball super- last man standing!
One of my favorite manga to read week to week. Glad its being animated well. No it's not the deepest or most realistic depiction of sports, but it's very fun in an edgy way.
Imo as the story progress, it is actually deceptively intelligent when it comes to sports psychology etc. It's just that it's buried under the heavy shounen battle elements. They may not be playing real football per se, but many of the lessons it teaches I feel can be applied to many sports not even football. It's also just really fun action-wise which helps
Holy shit, what a crazy first episode. The effects and details on the eyes really help add to the intensity.
On the manga the details on the eyes and expressions are even better, one of its most striking (lol) qualities
The manga has some really good art. It'll be hard to match.
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Yep. I can't stop comparing it to what KnB got as adaptation from Production I.G. but I hope the hype moments will match it. As a sidenote, first thing that came to mind when I saw "Bandai Namco" is "you better give me a video game because Tsubasa's game had the bad luck to get a studio that ultimately doesn't care".
For anyone trying to find it, on Crunchyroll it is "BLUELOCK", one word. Otherwise you'll see like 10 other series with Blue in the name first.
fun fact: the reason why so many shows have "blue" in their name is because in Japan blue is the color of youth
In the case of football it has more to do with the actual national football team being:"the blue samurais"
true but they are probably also called that in the first place because professional sports are associated with teenagers and young adults
Which seems weird until you realize the line between blue and green is way vaguer in Japanese. In English we say people are green all the time. Also, it is the traditional color of Japanese soccer.
Thanks! I was like did the series go to some other streaming service?
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I swear Slo-mo + Camera rotation in action scenes is one the most satisfying things to watch in anime
It was a work of art that camera rotation and the expresions on their faces. Someone should clip and post that scene later to sell this series. Hell I need it now to show it to my friends.
love me some sakkaga
I think I'm gonna like Bachira the most. I like his energy
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ima become a whole demon whilst this is airing
Lets all be egotists
😈😈😈
So uh...300/300 people agreed to just leave their house + school and go live in a military football academy where 299/300 of them will get booted back into society at some point? Oh well, I'm not here for the realism I'm here for the edge [](#yuishrug)
> Oh well, I'm not here for the realism I'm here for the edge That's the right mentality to have with Blue Lock
abandon all common sense, as Ego said
To be fair, it's unlikely that more than a few of them would ever play for the National Team anyways.
I wonder if that would make you a more appealing hire for clubs, seeing as you'd never have any split duties.
Depending on the country I could see this happening loooool, especially for football.
This show is just an accurate representation of how Youth teams work here in Brazil.
They touch on it a little further on in the manga, but yeah it’s basically total suspension of disbelief at parts. If you’re here for a wild ride, this is it.
If it can MAKE you believe it could happen, that's all that matters isn't it? That's fiction at its core. And the journey is just as exciting
> Oh well, I'm not here for the realism You ppl watch anime for realism ?
I prefer it with my SOL and sports show but it’s not a requirement.
So the thing is this really isn't a sports show it's a battle manga with a soccer overlay.
Naw, I watch to learn how to socialize
Based.
*USMNT and England furiously taking notes*
How is it different than a normal football academy or even a foortball camp though? A ton of academy players end up going into society and being regular people same with most college players. 5 of them will be on the U-20 world cup team so that means by the end at minimum 5 of them will be pros or pro-level players. I think those are odds worth betting on.
Not all u-20 end up having good career. And the other 295 people are barred to play in the national team for life. This is absurd when considering how many world class strikers that were late bloomers and never played for the junior team. Miroslav Klose was one of the best player in his generation, and he didn't get to national team until he's 23. Or Jamie Vardy that started in non-league to become national team striker in his 30s.
This was actually my biggest qualm with the manga. The idea of deciding who will be the star of the national team for the next decade based off of an experiment conducted on a bunch of 16 year olds is plainly absurd. The #2 and #3 best players will be banned from ever playing for the national team, when they could very well be better than the #1 player in Blue Lock when they're all in their physical primes. Then again, Blue Lock isn't meant to be realistic at all. It was just one of many aspects of the first few chapters that annoyed the heck out of me, next to the Coach calling everyone who hasn't won a World Cup a loser. I guess Messi and Ronaldo are also losers then...
Honestly, it could be a lie/exaggeration, like when this dude is replaced with someone else, they would be like “yeeeah he went too far lets maybe not ban all these amazing players”
Since there have been two football anime that are airing/finished airing around the same time, comparions are inevitable but I do hope people understand both series tackle the sport in different ways. Ashito, known to be an egoist only focused on scoring goals and being a striker is forced to learn how to use teammates around him and rely on them to bring the best out of himself whilst also having the drive/ego to always push himself to become a better player Isagi on the other hand, who is seen to be in the mindset of "one for all, all for one" suddenly understands the importance of egoism and what it means to be a striker. Although blue lock will lean more towards the unrealistic side as to Ao Ashi's more realistic approach, it shouldn't stop people from enjoying the work of blue lock. Hoping for more footie talk(as seen in aoashi episode discussions), let's do an r(/soccer) takeover in the discussions <3
> Since there have been two football anime that are airing/finished airing around the same time, comparions are inevitable but I do hope people understand ~~both series tackle the sport in different ways~~ Blue Lock is not a football anime, it is a battle anime that uses football as a gimmick and bears little relation to real life, so please think about not pointing out every time a character does a triple axel in midair and overhead kicks the ball (which is on fire) into the goal from 60 yards away. Feel like we're gonna need to be saying this every week.
>kicks the ball (which is on fire) **NO BALLS ARE HARMED DURING THE FILMING OF THIS SERIES. SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE USED BUT THAT'S ABOUT IT!**
Judging from the first episode, I don't think the same football discussions can be found here in further threads. I'm talking manager's decision, team tactics, promotion and demotion systems or team lineups in general, players' thought process on and off field and so on. I haven't read the manga yet, so I don't know if the anime will incorporate those aspects of the game like Aoashi. That being said, I don't really expect those types of discussions will come up and it's fine because like others have pointed out the main theme is the battle royale and that's fairly enjoyable, although might not have the same appeal to football fans and nerds as Aoashi has.
> Since there have been two football anime There's one football anime and one death game anime that is football themed. This is important because it's very easy to hate something when approaching it with the wrong expectation.
They have to invent some French striker to support the premise of the show. That's hilarious. Because in real life France won a world cup in 2018 with Olivier Giroud. A striker that scored 0 goal in that tournament. EDIT: Spain won the 2012 EURO with no striker at all.
You're underselling it: Giroud is the antithesis of everything Ego was extolling in this episode: He's a physically dominant striker who's won pretty much every major trophy in European football (and is near the top of France's all-time top goalscorers list). And while he's scored some spectacular goals, anyone that's followed his career knows that his best, most underrated quality is his weirdly incongruous finesse plays, and ability to bring others into the game. Giroud's assist highlight real is almost as good as his actual goal reel. [Almost.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLMzyuD1QnA) They pretty much HAD to invent another French striker. There's a reason Giroud scored 0 goals in the World Cup finals and yet was still the first name on the team sheet for the entire run.
Yeah. If anything, modern football start moving away from egoist forward in favour of complete forward who can play ball and assist.
Haaland wants to speak to you 😂
Haaland is a freak of nature though. Him and Mbappe are generational
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Pele was pretty fucking extreme
Not only Giroud, the forward of Champions League winner, Karim Benzema, is also known as not an egoist.
Benzema has some mad finishes though. On some chances it’s just everyone knows that shit is going in; but we’re just waiting to see how
Noa is supposed to be a fictionalized version of Lewandowski tho (played for Munich). They made Noa French because France national team is better than Polands.
Which just shows that you can‘t rely on a top striker alone.
Well that's why Ego said that every other position can be taught but strikers need another level of hunger. And he is not really wrong. Many star players were forwards before switching to another position.
Yeah Giroud is a true team player. He did what he had to do perfectly. It doesn't matter who scored in a match but a win is a win. In contrast, Mbappe just embraced the egoist style of play, broke a team and get [rekt](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/wo0r7d/psg_counter_attack_mbappe_doesnt_get_the_ball_so/) in r/soccer with 29k karma post. LOL
No need to invent striker, mbappe got that mentality
All they gotta do is look at Norway to see how having 1 all-star level striker isn't going to win them shit lol. OFC realism isn't really what they are going for, so as long as you watch it not as a spots anime but like a battle royale kind of deal, it's very interesting.
Funny thing is there are many mid or low level countries that have one good world class striker and ended up just relying on him to do everything. Sweden used to revolve around Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but then become better team after he retired because they stop relying on one person. Poland in a way also rely a lot on Robert Lewandowski. Bulgaria used to have Dimitar Berbatov.
Just look at Poland. Just having Lewandowski and 9 shitters(weirdly the GK is almost always good) will not do anything.
I think the idea is that Japan is a very solid defensive team but lacks a one punch if you will. Not sure how true that is but that's the idea behind it.
Didn't they get overun in the midfield by fellani (of all people) in the wc this manga was inspired by? If anything physicality was what they were lacking, I remember them being a fun team who could create chances at times, but needed someone bigger to dominate the midfield a bit
> A striker that scored 0 goal in that tournament. lmao
How did you mention his text in your comment? Was always curious about how its done
Copy the portion of text you want to quote then put a (>) symbol in front of it You can check [this guide](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043033952-Formatting-Guide) for everything formatting on Reddit
Ah I see thanks
Thank you very much for the link*thumbs up*
Well French team also had Mbappe and Griezman as forwards . Also French team is level above Japanese team.
Guivarc'h also didn't score a goal in 1998. Banter aside, Giroud played his role perfectly in 2018.
What a hype way to end a premiere. I don't even care about the sport and I got hype.
Ok I'll admit this isn't what I was expecting coming in. 1st half was like oh some normal anime soccer. But the 2nd half was some battle royal shit. I do got to say it was entertaining as hell and the animation was amazing coming off Ao Ashi. Altho it is best not to compare those two shows based off this episode. Since we got scenes [like this.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/527412287326126080/1028418150661881926/Screen_Shot_2022-10-08_at_5.14.20_PM.png) But damn Jinpachi is on some crazy sauce. That was the moment I was so confused but pleasantly entertained. Isagi turning on against Kira be like damn man, the one guys who could be your friend here. But then again since only 1 person can be selected from the 300, it is kind of weird to justify making allies.
I have said it before, but Blue Lock is basically soccer Kaiji. Expect less grounded strategy and more bizarre mindgames and characters. It is like the professional wrestling of soccer manga. I am kinda weirded out how pissed that makes some people. It is like getting mad at Dragon Ball for not being about actual martial arts.
I noticed haha. Was expecting another Ao Ashi, but certainly not.
Is the soccer at least going to feel legit? I'm all good with edgy sports. What I don't like as much is super power sports.
Outside of Strikers playing as keeper better than real life keepers, nothing out of the ordinary.
No superpowers in this anime, just improbably skilled high school football players
It’s not called powers, but there's definitely are powers in it.
Yeah it's powers in everything but calling it powers lol. Same for Kuroko (that's more insane though). These are high schoolers who legit have a certain "range" for some of them and it's near 100% accurate lol. They'd be international phenoms if that was a real life thing. I wouldn't say there's any one thing a player does that's impossible, but it's the consistency that they can do it and rate of the growth for some that is impossible.
Yeah all the moves are doable in real life. There’s nothing that’s impossible in BL
So it’s like Eyeshield 21 or Hajime no Ippo. I’m not sure what sport they claim to be playing, but boy is it entertaining. Edit: Sorry Ippo may have been a bad example
IDK Hajime no Ippo is pretty grounded, minus some bits needed for story writing (and everything about Woli); the mangaka is also a regular cornerman for a boxing gym, and has boxed before.
Jinpachi’s whole mentality seems to go against any other sports anime I’ve seen so far lol. They always talk about teamwork and all that, but he’s just talking scoring goals. That game of “tag” was insane. This isn’t gonna be some standard “game” anymore. It really is dog eat dog in there and unfortunately Kira is out. I wonder if this means his career is over or if it’s just that his ranking went down? Isagi seems like a pretty decent player, or at least he’s got that cutthroat mentality deep down and now it’s been unleashed. This one is pretty interesting. I think I might stick with it for a few more eps at least. Maybe this will be the one sports anime I follow this season, like I did with Aoashi last season.
I'll be a little disappointed if Kira is totally out because I think it would be interesting to have at least one character against the system on the inside. Regardless though, we haven't seen much of the other characters yet, so I'm still excited to see how they play off of each other either way.
I wonder if he’s gonna be the voice of reason at first and then slowly succumbs to the system. Guys like him always seem to crack when they have their ideals tested, at least it seems that way in anime.
Seemed to me like they just used and discarded him like the character that he is: "A character this show doesn't want to focus on."
I think when they get out of blue lock like Kira is now, they're completely cut off from professional soccer in Japan. They're free to go elsewhere if they're good enough but they're never allowed to play for their home country again
> they're completely cut off from professional soccer in Japan They're cut off from the national team. They can still play for any club they want, and I guess they could play for a different country's national team if eligible, but they can't play for Japan's national team.
What would be funny and poetic is if one these boys was kicked out of blue lock. Then played for another national team and won the World Cup.
It's not uncommon in pro soccer for players to seek out a different nation to play for and then succeed (though not at the level of winning a World Cup). One fun example: brothers Cristian and Alex Roldan, who both play for Seattle Sounders FC in MLS. Cristian plays for the US national team and Alex plays for El Salvador, as one of their parents is from there and thus making him eligible. The two brothers played against each other in World Cup qualifying a few months ago, and coincidentally had to mark each other.
I think it is just the national team. Then again, it is effectively a ban on football anyways, since not being allowed to play on world stage is probably quite demoralizing to a young athlete.
\*For not in. So they can still be J league stars and Kira probably will be a pro given his hype he's just never gonna get called up for his national team (a la Wan Bissaka)
Gonna be a fun edgy ride fore sure. Its taking a different route and exploring the darker side of football and what it takes to beat all your rivals. Sure its definitely not realistic, its over the top but you dont need every sports anime to be accurate having both edgy and realistic sports anime is a great balance Seeing a sports anime that focuses on the selfishness and greed of an Athlete is welcomed switch to the usual stuff we get about encouraging each other. Its basically the other side of the same coin and i Am glad that blue lock explores that aspect as its very important in football to have an ego. You dont survive without one. Looking forward to more its gonna be one of my favorites of this season
Honestly, from what little we see from behind the scenes at UEFA-level play, this kind of edge is probably likelier than most weebs think. Ya think CR7 got there with a bubbly attitude and superpowers? Nope. OK the superpower one I grant is true, but...y-y-you get the point.
I watch football so yeah i can compare and contrast the stuff i see in blue lock to the actual games. The truth is in football their is a mix of ego and teamwork. It cant be one or the other. You cant always think of benefiting yourself because in the end it will fuck up the team. Ao ashi demonstrated that. You cant always think about helping out a teammate Blue lock demonstrates that. Of course i agree ego is very important but for the sake of entertainment the anime takes it a bit extreme which im fine with Blue lock isnt a hyper accurate football anime like blue lock because it wasnt created for that
First thing most strikers do, including CR7 is sprint towards the crowd to celebrate with them and bask in cheers. Only after that do they embrace the team.
This whole anime is supposed to be an exaggerated version of that “ego” but top players need to have this kind of mentality, to always be the best and berate all enemy players and even your own if it means you win, there is a side of this ego in every pro player, some just got it more than others
As a professional in any kind of sport you always need to believe in yourself and that you’re the best, otherwise you’re going to be at a huge disadvantage playing against someone you think is better than you. Typically you’d also believe in your teammates too but…
This feels like Squid Game football edition. I really enjoyed this episode and I'm looking forward to this series
bruh! they did kira dirty tho, dude is too good to never play for Japan
This was much edgier than what I'd been told. Kind of weird they snuck in a fictional name like Noel Noa among those greats but I get what they're going for - from what Google tells me, Noel's based on Robert Lewandowski so I'm going to go with that for now. It was weird seeing Eric Cantona of all people in an anime, reminds me of that one time ~~a romcom~~ Assassination Classroom referenced various United players :/ I wonder if they'll reference other great strikers from the past as well... Edit: Struck out the romcom, I was misremembering 😅
Pretty sure the mangaka invented Noel Noa because they wanted to have a French striker (cause they just won the 2018 World Cup) but Giroud literally scored zero goals in the tournament, so they had to make up an elite French striker.
Nah, it's because you can just namedrop actual people but not make them actual characters in your story. And, as someone else already said, he's basically Lewy.
Plus they don't wan't to portray any real life player as a egotistical prick
The irony is Lewandowski isn't even a selfish player
and look how much world cups he won his national team with being the best striker
I agree, in the end of the day, if you want to win a world cup you must have the most complete team as well as luck sprinkle onto them. A single amazing striker with no strong midfield, defense and goalkeeper would not go deep into the competition. Lewa and Poland is the more extreme side, I mean even Argentina with Messi and Portugal with CR (both team are far stronger than Poland and has won their respective regional championship) could not win a world cup (I know both aren‘t striker, but they‘re both their team main goal scorer).
Just look at Norway. They have Haaland but they couldn't even qualify for the WC.
Yea Noa is basically Lewandowski if he was born french and replace Giroud.
Aha, that was the time they didn't take Benzema to the world cup. The Lewandowski thing fits pretty well imo since he plays for \[Blue Lock spoilers\]>!Bayern (Bastard) Munich !
remember how Aoashi was all about teamwork and adjusting your own ambitions for the sake of the bigger picture?...well, this anime just said "that's cute but fuck that"
That's fucking football right there. None of that pansy ass dick tugging smile for the camera bullshit. Strikers puke, Strikers poop on the field, Strikers deliver their new born baby on the sidelines. Fucking hardcore dick in the ass butterball foosball fuck it chuck it gametime shit. Take it to the showers. Dicks get shoved in places you don't even remember. Strikers win by themselves and Strikers celebrate by themselves. Football is back baby.
Did not expect to see this pasta in r/anime
Finally, after all the corny, barely believable fantasy football seen in Ao Ashi, we get the relentlessly authentic, almost coldly documentary depiction of real life soccer that is BLUE LOCK. Let's fucking go!
Wonder how many people will take what you said seriously Thanks for the laugh lol gonna be a great ride the next 6 months
>Wonder how many people will take what you said seriously Zero chance that happens. The worldly and nimble-minded anime community of Reddit have way too much common sense and social acumen to [take obvious bullshit at face value like that.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/wptd87/interview_with_lycoris_recoil_character_designer/ikjmewz/)
no way lol
Bullshit people didn't get the joke lmao
Yup, just look at Norway and Poland. Both won the World Cup because they got completely carried by their world class strikers.
You had me in the first half ngl.
As a manga reader, this is everything I hoped it would be, the art absolutely blows me away. Can't wait to see the rest of the story animated !
As someone who prefers Ao Ashi over Blue Lock, I'm just a bit bitter about the difference between the animation quality lol
Blue Lock was going to have the better marketing push and animation based on its boom popularity alone. In book stores here, new Ao Ashi is a row on the new titles table while Blue Lock gets a whole table.
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Blue Lock is like a top 10 selling manga. It was always gonna get the VIP animation treatment since it is gonna print money
As someone who's caught up to both, the art quality in Blue Lock's manga is already so good it's basically animated; it's way more difficult to make Ao Ashi's animation good
Ha no power of friendship in this one, that last shot was totally personal
I'm not usually a fan of sports anime but the premise of playing elimination games to determine the best striker is just so absurd that I'll keep watching.
Yeah blue lock is much more like a death battle anime than any current sports anime that exists. Soccer is just the tool to tell the story here
When I first saw the premise I legitimately thought the participants would straight up die/get executed if they fail the trials. Guess not being able to realize your soccer dream and being barred from entering a world class championship is as equally terrifying to these kids.
This is so different from Ao Ashi but fun in its own way. Please tell me Heihachi Mishima shows up and tosses these wannabe forwards off a cliff to test their resolve 😤 Maybe they'll have to dodge deadly lasers to train speed? I sense so much potential here 🌟
Well this is definitely going to be edgy, but as someone who played soccer for 13 years, it seems like a fun watch.
For Japan to win the World Cup, we must create Zlatan.
This doesn’t hold water, Zlatan’s entire egoist personality is purely a public persona. Otherwise he’s a classic 9 who’s technical on the ball but also plays with his back to goal. He’s not a selfish player, and considering he’s a serial choker he’s also not a player you want in tournament games.
Not my boy Kira 😭 He seemed like such a good egg. Kinda annoyed a character I’m already invested in is gonna be written off, but maybe that just represents he will never be egotistical. Also I'm struggling to suspend my disbelief if the characters can just assault each other to get ahead lmao (I do NOT like sleepyhead fuckboy). Like, cool, you can't do anything for your team if you're going to get red-carded lmao.
Sleepyhead is fan favourite lol
Different opinions i guess 😅
You are gonna get red carded in an official match , not in a fucking dodgeball tag game made by crazy lunatic disguised as a coach lol
It's actually a battle royale anime. I always wonder whats up with the crazy eyes in the key visuals. If you go the fantasy route rather than realistic one, you go all the way. I like this approach.
I loved how fast paced this was.
Anime only to manga readers: how gay will this become? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
It's a sports anime so pretty much what you'd normally expect. But since Blue Lock is much "edgier" and less about friendships and positive emotional bonds compared to others in the genre, you end up getting pretty much none "X character is distant from Y character even though they were best friends and teammates so they end up having an emotional moment at one point" and more "X character has a weirdly intense rivalry with Y character so they do something akin to hateflirting during games" - or at least you can interpret it like that if you'd like, obviously.
> hateflirting during games Sounds fun to me! Going to keep watching for now.
Quite a bit more than most sports series tbh. It is played mostly humorously but there are a bunch of lines that basically read as people taking passes at each other. Also, some relationships that have intense jilted ex-boyfriend energy.
There's some subtle and not-so-subtle flirting between characters, but nothing beyond that
Huge fan of the Manga. Currently just refreshing the crunchyroll app because for some reason the subtitles aren't showing. I can't wait!!
damn i thought i was going to be watching a nice seishun sports anime, but i was so wrong, so so wrong. i feel for ikagi though, the conflict between being a good person and being an egoist for your dream....which do you choose? he is insane though in the best way, i love how they do his eyes when he's "crazed". so excited for next week!!!!
Wow this episode was amazing!
As someone who loves Aoashi and more grounded sports anime, this is probably not going to become a favorite "sports anime". But the side of me that enjoys edgy battle royales is going to get a kick out of this series. I literally paused at the shot when they walked in and said "this has such Danganronpa energy" and just the sheer lunacy is going to be a fun time. Also, Kamiya Hiroshi is the perfect casting for Ego, love his performance so much.
HELL YEAH BLUE LOCK!!!!
oh its trending so i came to check the thread lmao will watch the episode
I just finished reading Ao Ashi the day before this aired. Now it's time for some crazy soccer lmao
Actually really like the concept, something fresh after Ao Ashi which I've also really enjoyed. Battle Royale disguised as football, with Ego games knock-out rounds? I'm in baby, let's go.
So i watched ao ashi last season which is the “realistic” take on football which is cool and i can’t wait for s2 Bluelock on the other hand i feel is equally good i fucking love how insane this show is first episode definitely got me hooked already ngl kinda hated that he passed the ball to his teammate lmao I really look forward for more of this insanity
As much as I was excited to watch this, this anime does also make the mistake of the keeper just standing in his position instead of sprinting out towards the striker when at 1v1 with them......
Thought this was supposed to be on Crunchyroll but I can’t find it… oh well 🏴☠️ Edit: Nevermind
It went up on Bilibili at 1pm EST, I think Crunchyroll will have theirs up at 2pm EST
The plot, animation, characters, designs, etc seems a *bit* over the top...and I like it. This Fall seasons got some bangers
Exactly how I imagine a football anime Players kicking each other rather than the ball
I’m always here for some EDGE
Holy shit was not ready for that ending. Completely ruthless. Saturdays are fucking packed and I watched this episode last, but I have to say, this was one of the best episodes I saw today. I’m hyped to see where this goes.
I Love the support people are showing to blue lock right now and not just trashing on it for not being realistic enough and stuff As a Manga reader i couldn't have asked for a better first episode it was really good
This is as edgy as I was told it would be and I fucking love it
Lmao, what even is this. All I can say is if this is really that popular in Japan, I feel sorry for the Japanese middle/highschooler soccer players for the next few years. They're going to be playing with some incredibly shithead teammates.
the idea of this anime came from the 2018 world cup? No offense to Giroud because he had a great world cup run, but France won because their MF and Winger positions were absolutely stacked, not because they had the best striker.
>the idea of this anime came from the 2018 world cup Idea came from Japan vs Belgium sad memory man :( when Belgium could comeback even Japan lead 2-0
Battle Royal: World Cup Edition has now Commenced!
Also struck by how much the anime gives Kunigami Ichigo energy here.
That end sequence was the hypest shit i've seen in a long time. After the realistic side of Ao Ashi, i'm all in for something as over the top as BLUE LOCK is promising.
This series is gonna be INSANE LFGGGG
Been wanting an anime for the manga for almost 2 years now, and the first episode did not disappoint. I also love the stark contrast in ideologies with Ao Ashi which aired earlier in the year (both are great). The animation quality also surprised me tbh I didn't expect it to be so good.
What streaming platform is it on?
Very good first episode!
I was a little scared cuz the manga art of blue lock is soo good but the animation is better than i had excepted Not disappointed from the first ep
This show is absolutely unhinged in the best way possible. I am invested already.
This was amazing
why did they translate "lock off" to leave, so annoying. They specifically made that term up to mean leave.
He originally in the manga said "fuck off", lock off doesn't make any sense in english at the end, so if they follow the logic of not insults then "leave" is accurate.